Companion Ale | Brooklyn Brewery

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Let me start out saying that wheatwine has almost always been a bit of a letdown for me in the past, with the exception if White Oak, ( a Belgian take on the style). Hefe is my favorite style and I love Belgian Wits. Generally any style that includes wheat I tend to gravitate towards except this one. So I go to the opening of On Tap at Whole Foods Columbus Circle to get my book signed by Garret and check out the place. The Companion was the star of my two flights and I wound up buying 128 oz to in three growlers to take home . While I have notes from which I will post my review of this stuff on tap I will go in depth with the growler I scored and get cozy with what is a really fine beer. This is my personal favorite in this style to date.

Appearance is a clear golden amber with a very large slightly off white head, very good retention and nice amount of lacing. Beer stays covered for the entire glass. Smell is full of floor malt and big chunks of yeasty bread. A light undercurrent of sweet alcohol and pepper. Lovely fruitiness has banana notes and white grapes. Taste is big and bready with the malt being the star of this beer. Floor malted wheat gives a level of depth that I have never experienced in this style. There is a bread flavor that recalls toasted light whole wheat with butter and strawberry jam. I mean the flavors are so British tea time. Biscuits and butter. Jam and toast. The sweetness of the malt and alcohol are beautifully balanced and all I want to do is indulge myself in the flavors swirling around my tongue. Yeasty fruit esters and bakery. Peppery edge hides the alcohol so well you have to let the beer warm to find it. Event then it is stealthy. Hops are earthy and dry with a clean quenching signature. Finish leaves dryness and bready malt along with toasted biscuits. Feel is so light and crisp the only tip off to the strength is when you are legless. The carbonation fine and smoothly crisp with a drinkability so far beyond what I have experienced before that it goes down more like a good lager that a strong ale. You start out treating it like a session beer. This is just a great overall beer with a kick like a velvet hammer. Deliciously full flavored with complexity and nuance, it is more than I expected from the style and just what I expect from Garret Oliver. I am pleased to be rating this one highly. It is the best of the style I have had and is a benchmark for me.

Beautiful Triple. Lovely flavors and mouth feel. Rich, reminded me of Cuvee de Kaiser Blau.
On Tap at Fireworks Arlington Virginia.
Small Glass due to 10% but nice sipping beer.
Its going on tap at Flying Saucer Austin tomorrow and I suggest a pilgrimage.

On tap at the Blue Tusk in Syracuse, NY, poured to a 12oz mug at the bar.

Appearance (4.0): ALMOST clear body, a light orange-amber with essentially no head or lacing to speak of. Head and lacing seem pretty typical for the style, but it’s on the light and clear side for a wheatwine.

Taste (5.0): Amazing. It’s smooth, with a light, brassy tartness from the wheat malt, with spicy hops that bring in a long, blonde-sweet finish, like light brown sugar was used in finishing . . . not heavy or cumbersome like other –wines. Some booze, but it’s a nice touch. Yeast and malt combo is very, very German in nature. Absolutely beautiful.

Mouthfeel (5.0): Creamy, syrupy and on the heavier side of medium, with an active, velvety carbonation! Again, beautiful beer and amazing mouthfeel for the style.

Overall (5.0): Phenomenal. Drinkable as hell. Just a beautiful, smooth, relatively light and bright, joy-to-consume wheatwine. All other wheatwines should keep this one in mind as a benchmark of sorts . . . if all wheatwines were this enjoyable, they’d be as popular as barleywines. Absolutely wonderful, this was the highlight of the night.

Sapsuckers of Huntington has this beer and as most people know I'm partial to Stouts/Porters. However, this beer is excellent and will definitely have a few glasses of this beer. In flavor it reminds me of a Belgian quadrupel. A nice clear amber colored beer with a white head. Sugary notes on the nose with hints of caramel, and maple. It is a slightly syrrupy beer in the mouth with a sweetness that is well-balanced and a slight effervensce that helps clear out the syrrupiness. An excellant beer, highly recommend it!